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AOUPINIA, A REMARKABLE NEW GENUS OF ADELIINI FROM NEW CALEDONIA(COLEOPTERA: TENEBRIONIDAE)

ERIC G MATTHEWS

Matthews, E.G. 2003 06 30: Aoupinia, a remarkable new genus of Adeliini from NewCaledonia (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae). Memoirs of the Queensland Museum 49(1):441-445. Brisbane. ISSN 0079-8835.

Aoupinia pseudohelea, new genus and species, is described from Aoupinie Special FaunaReserve, New Caledonia, where it occurs in rainforest leaf litter. Although stronglyresembling the unrelated Australian tenebrionine Helea Latreille, Aoupinia belongs to thelagriine tribe Adeliini, a Gondwanan group which has diversified extensively in NewCaledonia. There is an analysis showing that the new taxon belongs to a group of tenAustralian and New Caledonian genera termed the northern squalid group, but that it is ofuncertain relationship vis-à-vis particular genera within this group. 0 Coleoptera,Tenebrionidae, Adeliini, New Caledonia, new genus.

Eric Matthews, South Australian Museum, North Terrace, Adelaide 5000, Australia (e-mail:matthews.eric@saugov.sa.gov.au); 27 August 2002.

New Caledonia has a diverse representation ofthe Gondwanan tribe Adeliini, which also occursin Australia, New Zealand and Chile (Matthews,1998). Kaszab (1982), in his revision of theTenebrionidae of the island, described and keyedeight genera and 50 species of Adeliini, and 20additional species were described after twosubsequent visits there by GB. Monteith of theQueensland Museum (Kaszab, 1986). While itwas evident from the small number of knownspecimens of some taxa that the tenebrionidfauna of New Caledonia was still imperfectlyknown, it nevertheless came as a surprise todiscover there a taxon of Adeliini which wascompletely different from any other member ofthe tribe, one which in fact bears a strikingexternal resemblance to the unrelated Australiangenus Helea Latreille.

A single specimen of this species was found inlate 2000 in the Reserve Speciale de Faune del'Aoupinie by GB. Monteith. This reservestraddles the 1000m Massif Central which formsthe east/west divide in the centre of the island andis traversed by a road which crosses betweenPoya and Ponerihouen servicing a radio repeaterstation on the summit. In the following year threemore specimens were found in the same place bythe same collector.

SYSTEMATICS

Aoupinia gen. nov.

TYPE SPECIES: Aoupinia pseudohelea sp. nov.

DESCRIPTION. Oblong, castaneous, alutaceous,both dorsal and ventral surfaces squalid, covered

with a thin layer of fine soil retained by numeroussmall, curved, thickened setae disposed overentire body and legs, not tuberculate.Head. Clypeus with anterior edge convex,straight in middle. Clypeo-frontal suture deeplyimpressed. Frontal grooves present, distinctlyimpressed. Eyes strongly transverse, surroundedby a groove. Antennae not quite reaching base ofprothorax, antennomeres (Fig. 3A) 1-7 more orless oblong or a little obconic, with sparse longsetae, 3 as long as 4 and 5 combined, 7 1.5 x aslong as 6, 8-11 monilifonn, paler and slightlywider than preceding segments, densely coveredwith very short setae as well as a few longerbristles. Mentum trapezoidal, depressed on basaland middle areas, a little raised anteriorly inmiddle. Terminal maxillary palpomere enlargedand securiform.Prothorax. Pronotum with sides expanded intowide flanges which arch forward over head. Hindedge with 4 projections partly overlapping elytralbases. Prosternum long before coxae, its anterioredge raised into a prominent convex collar (Fig.2, c). Prosternal process flat, moderately wide,slightly expanded posteriorly with almoststraight hind edge.Pterothorax. Elytral disc smooth, not tubercu-late. A wide reflexed flange emerging alongentire length of elytron just outside 8th stria. Noepipleuron evident underneath, outside edge ofelytron with narrow beading. Wings absent.Meso- and metaventrites as in Fig. 2.Legs. Slender, femora and tibiae subparallel,densely covered with small curved setae holdinga layer of soil, apical spurs very small.

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FIG. 1. Aoupinia pseudohelea, .

Tarsomeres not expanded, obconic or monili-form, densely and finely setose, penultimatetarsomere with outer face moderately oblique andonly slightly prolonged into a small roundedlobe. Basal metatarsomere subequal in length toapical one.

Abdomen. Intercoxal process of first ventritebroadly rounded (Fig. 2). Tergite 7 withoutstridulatory files or thickened basal portion.Segment-7 glands absent. Very long extrusibleglands emerging between segments 8 and 9.

Ovipositor (Fig. 3C) with elongated and fusedcoxites 3 and 4, gonostyles terminal. Vaginawithout sclerites, with diverticulum (Fig. 3C) acluster of a few spermathecal tubules (Fig. 3C) atbase of accessory gland (ag).

Aoupinia pseudohelea sp. nov.(Figs 1-3)

MATERIAL. HOLOTYPE: Museum National d'HistoireNaturelle, Paris: d, New Caledonia, Aoupinie top camp,23 November 2001, GB. Monteith, QM Berlesate 1045,

NEW GENUS OF ADELIINI^

443

FIG. 2. Aoupinia pseudohelea, outline of underside. c,collar of prosternum. Scale = 2mm.

21°11'S 165°18'E, Rainforest 850m, Sieved litter.PARATYPES: All in Queensland Museum: 1 Y: Samedata as holotype (QMT93428); 1 d: Aoupinie, 20 Nov2000, G.B. Monteith, QM Berlesate 1035, 21°11'S165°19'E, Rainforest, 850m, Sieved litter (QMT93427); 1

: Aoupinie top camp, 2-3 Nov 2001, GB. Monteith, QMBerlesate 1060, 21°11'S 165°18'E, Rainforest, 850m,Sieved litter (QMT93426).

DESCRIPTION. Total length 9.8-11.0mm,maximum width across elytra 5.0-5.7mm.Head. As for genus.Prothorax. Disc of pronotum smooth andsomewhat uneven, a little depressed in middle,with trace of median impressed line at base only,anterior edge concave, posterior edge straight inmiddle, each side expanded into a basally verywide upcurved flange with scalloped edgeswhich narrows anteriorly to produce an extensionarching forward over head, not quite meetingextension of other side (Fig. 1). Edge providedwith a fringe of numerous closely-spaced short,curved and thickened setae. Hind edge of flangedeeply arcuately excised outwardly withproduced hind angle, inwardly with a strong

FIG. 3. Aoupinia pseudohelea. A, left antenna frombelow; B, aedeagus in ventral view; C, ovipositor andfemale tract in ventral view, a, fused alae of aedeagus;ag, spermathecal accessory gland; c3+4, fusedcoxites 3 and 4; d, diverticulum; o, common oviduct;s, spermathecal tubules. Scales = lmm.

projection directed backward toward base ofelytron, upper surface of flange feebly rugose andpunctate.

Ptero thorax. Discal surface feebly convex, inter-vals flat, striae consisting of closely spacedmoderately impressed punctures, 8th stria at baseof flange with larger and deeper punctures.Flanges wide, about 1/3 as wide as elytral disc,their edges even and provided with serried row ofhooked setae, dorsally with numerous largeshallow punctures not aligned into striae.

Legs. As for genus.

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Majority rule

100

2

FIG. 4. 50% majority rule consensus of 33 trees for tenrelated squalid genera of Adeliini with Neoadelium asthe outgroup, using PAUP 3.1. All charactersunordered and unweighted. Tree length 54, CI 0.533.A = Australia; NC = New Caledonia.

Abdomen. Aedeagus (Fig. 3B) with sides ofbasalpiece inflected but not quite meeting, alae (Fig. 3B)membranous, fused, no basal flange. Otherwiseas for genus.

HABITAT. Aoupinia was extracted by Berlesefunnel from sieved leaf litter collected inundisturbed rainforest at 850m altitude at thepoint on the summit of the range where the eastand west access roads meet. It is curious that noother rainforest-inhabiting Adeliini were foundin this area, apart from a specimen of anundescribed species of Ozotypoides Kaszabobtained by pyrethrum fogging of a tree trunk(G.B. Monteith, pers. comm.). Like all the squalidAdeliini Aoupinia is covered in life with a layer offine clay which presumably serves to make thebeetle inconspicuous, and which in this casebridges the gap between the two wings of thepronotal flanges.

RELATIONSHIPS OF AOUPINIA

In spite of its close resemblance to Helea,which belongs to the Tenebrioninae, Aoupinia isshown to be in the Adeliini (Lagriinae) by the pairof long eversible defensive gland sacs emergingbetween segments 8 and 9 of the abdomen. Allother Tenebrionidae with defensive glands havethem between segments 7 and 8 (and muchshorter). Also, the ovipositor and female tractconfiguration (Fig. 3C), with slender coxites,terminal gonostyles, and multiple spermathecaltubules, is typical of Adeliini and unknown inTenebrioninae.

Within Adeliini Aoupinia is strikingly differentin appearance from other genera because of its

TABLE 1. List of characters and their states.

1. Clypeus anterior edge: 0, straight; 1, emarginate.2. Clypeo-frontal suture: 0, shallow; 1, deep.3. Frontal grooves: 0, absent; 1, present.4. Groove around eye: 0, absent; 1, present.5. Eye shape: 0, transverse; 1, round.6. Antennomere 7: 0, subparallel, a little longer than wide; 1,subparallel, 1.5-1.7 x as long as wide; 2, cupuliform.7. Tomentose ('club') segments of antennae: 0, none; 1, three;2, four.8. Pronotal lateral outgrowths: 0, absent; 1, present.9. Interlocking of fore and hind body: 0, absent; 1, present.10. Prosternal collar: 0, absent; 1, present.11. Prosternal process shape: 0, simple; 1, nodose; 2,bifurcate.12. Swollen metasternum: 0, absent; 1, present.13. Elytral flange or carina along stria 8:0, absent; 1, present.14. Elytral intervals: 0, smooth; 1, tuberculate.15. Epipleuron width: 0, widening anteriorly; 1, narrowthroughout or not evident.16. Penultimate tarsomere: 0, feebly or not lobed; 1, stronglylobed, symmetrical; 2, strongly lobed, asymmetrical.17. Basal metatarsomere length: 0, shorter than or subequal toclaw segment; 1, longer than claw segment.18. Intercoxal process of first abdominal ventrite: 0, arcuate;1, truncate.19. Stridulatory files of tergite 7: 0, present; 1, absent.20. Vaginal sclerites: 0, present; 1, absent.21. Sides of aedeagal basal piece: 0, not meeting; 1, meeting.22. Alae of aedeagus: 0, present, separate; 1, present, fused; 2,absent.

wide pronotal and elytral flanges with the formernearly meeting above the head, and its relativelylarge size. Nevertheless it is clear that it belongsto the group of northern rain forest generainformally called the Pseudobyrsax group byMatthews (1998), which includes all the NewCaledonian squalid genera plus MonteithiumMatthews of the Queensland wet tropics. Thisgroup is characterised by a squalidintegumentary surface (one which holds a layerof soil) which is also tuberculate in all membersexcept Aoupinia, antennae with the apical threeor four segments contrastingly tomentose (Fig.3A), anterior edge of the prosternum often raisedinto a collar (Fig. 2), epipleuron narrowthroughout, presence of a diverticulum on thevagina (Fig. 3C), and absence of sexualdimorphism. It is a characteristic of some

Isopteron AAdelodemus ABellendenum APseudobyrsax NCOzotypoides NCMonteithium AAoupinia NCAdelozotypus NCMontaguea NCBolusculus ANeoadelium NC

NEW GENUS OF ADELIINI^ 445

TABLE 2. Character state distribution for the northernsqualid group with Neoadelium as outgroup. A =Australia, NC = New Caledonia.

123451

67890 123452

67890 12Neoadelium NC 00100 00000 00001 10011 12Isopteron A 11010 00000 20000 00100 12Bolusculus A 00100 00100 00111 00111 12Adelodemus A 11100 00101 21010 11001 02Pseudobyrsax NC 01010 02101 20011 10111 02

Adelozotypus NC 11110101011 00011 00111 12

Montaguea NC 01110 01011 20011 00111 12Ozotypoides NC 01010 12000 20011 10111 01Bellendenum A 00100 00100 11010 21010 00Monteithium A 00101 22101 21011 10110 01Aoupinia NC 01110 12111 00111 00011 01

members of the group to interlock the fore andhind bodies by means of an interdigitation ofintegumentary projections and cavities, a featurewhich is maximally developed in MontagueaKaszab. In Aoupinia there are similarly twobackward inner projections on the prothorax(Fig. 1) which can be braced against thedepressed part of the elytral bases.

In a previous analysis (Matthews, 1998) it wasfound that the intuitive Pseudobyrsax group isnot clearly differentiated from the similarlysqualid Isopteron group of four Australiangenera, although the two together appear to bemonophyletic and may be termed 'the northernsqualid group' (there is an unrelated southernsqualid group involving taxa from New Zealand,Chile and southeastern Australia). The northernsqualid group is a syntaxon of five New Cal-edonian and five Australian genera, which isconfined to the rainforests of northeasternQueensland and New Caledonia (with the singleexception of the much more widespreadAustralian xerophilic Isopteron Hope). In NewCaledonia the squalid genera have a verypolarised distribution: of the five genera present,all occur in the northern half of the island whileonly one (Pseudobyrsax Kaszab) occurs in thesouthern half

Here the 10 genera of the northern squalidgroup are briefly analysed again using PAUP 3.1,with Aoupinia and Ozotypoides Kaszab added to

the previously included eight in Matthews (1998),and some additional characters introduced. Theoutgroup is the non-squalid, or carabiform, NewCaledonian Neoadelium Carter which appears asa sister group in Matthews (1998, fig. 175). Table1 lists the 22 characters involved and their states,and Table 2 shows the taxon character matrix.Autapomorphies (character states 5.1, 6.2, and16.2) are included in the matrix even thoughuninformative in order to present a completepicture of character state distribution.

Intuitively it appears that Aoupinia is related tothe Australian Monteithium, as suggested by thesharing of elaborate pronotal outgrowths and fourtomentose antennal club segments, but in factthere are more numerous differences between thetwo as may be seen in the table. The resultantanalysis (Fig. 4) leaves both these generaungrouped either with each other or with anyother single genus, while most of the remainderform a series of terminal pairs which are eitherwholly Australian or wholly New Caledonian. Inother words, there is no suggestion of a closerrelationship between any given Australian andNew Caledonian taxa beyond that of theircommon membership in the northern squalidgroup as a whole.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTSI am grateful to Geoff Monteith of the Queens-

land Museum for giving me the opportunity todescribe this extraordinary insect, latest in a longseries of his discoveries in tropical rainforest. Ialso wish to thank Geoff Thompson of theQueensland Museum for the fine illustration ofthe whole beetle (Fig. 1), and the curators of thefollowing collections for the loan of comparativematerial of New Caledonian Adeliini: HungarianNatural History Museum (0. Merkl), NewZealand Arthropod Collection (R. A. Leschen),and Queensland Museum (G.B. Monteith).

LITERATURE CITEDKASZAB, Z. 1982. Die Tenebrioniden Neukaledonien

und der Loyautá-Inseln. Folia EntomologicaHungarica 43: 1-294.

1986. Tenebrioniden (Coleoptera) aus Neukaledonien.Annales Historico-Naturales Musei NationalisHungarici 78: 151-175.

MATTHEWS, E.G 1998. Classification, phylogeny andbiogeography of the genera of Adeliini(Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae). InvertebrateTaxonomy 12: 685-824.